The Burning (1981) Review

Synopsis: A former summer camp caretaker, horribly burned from a prank gone wrong, lurks around an upstate New York summer camp bent on killing the teenagers responsible for his disfigurement.

My Quick Review: The Burning was one of the many movies that followed the success of Friday the 13th, and it’s also the first feature film bearing the credit “Created and Produced by Harvey Weinstein”. It was banned in some countries upon its release and is one of the lesser known slasher of the 80’s.

But trust me, The Burning has everything you would want in your 80’s slasher: T&A (including full frontal), jerky and horny teenagers, useless adults, gory kills, killer theme music, unrealistically strong killer, cheap jump scares and so on and so forth.

What makes the Burning a bit different for me was its Giallo influence, most notably through the use of music and the way some kills are shot. There is actually more style in this film than most of the early 80’s indie horror flicks.

On the negative side, the ending is fairly disappointing (we always knew who the killer was and there is no grand climax), and the script is average at best.

What remains nowadays of The Burning is a movie, at times very cheesy, but that’s what makes the charm of classic slashers and, to be fair, a very efficient “popcorn scare” film.